Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1901. CONSOLIDATION OF STATUTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 30 July 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1901. CONSOLIDATION OF STATUTES.

Mr. W. Jolliffe, the law draughtsman, formerly of Ashburton, has just received from the Government Printer a draft copy of the first volume of his consolidation of the statute law, which is a perfect monument of industry, accuracy and thoroughness. He (Mr. Jolliffe) is an English barrister by profession, and has been many years resident in the colony. The work started as a labour of love—a pastime to while away his leisure time—but it grew until he has now all but completed the classification and consolidation, of the whole of the statute law of the colony. Since the General Assembly first set about law-making in 1854, it has passed no less than 780 statutes, contained in 47 volumes, on all kinds of subjects many of them amending or repeating either wholly or in past statutes passed in previous years, and the law was further complicated by the fact that one Act would frequently contain a section repealing or amending a portion of an Act which bore an entirely different title. The volume consists of 20 acts, covering the provisions of 143 existing statutes, and reaches to the Constitution Act. The work will be complete in five volumes. That is to say the whole of the statute law of New Zealand. The idea is that Parliament on being satisfied—after taking such action as it terras proper—that those five volumes contain the law, the whole law, and nothing but the law of New Zealand, may fairly be asked to repeal all its former Acts embodied in this consolidation, and substitute the consolidated Acts in their places. This proposal will probably not come up till next year.